Comments Off on CrossWorlds at the URPP Summer School ‚Language and Space‘ in Kloster Kappel (CH)

The perfect place to think and talk about language and space.

Combining various methods and perspectives within a research project is an ambitious approach – one that we take very seriously. From September 4th to 9th, CrossWorlds joined the summer school of the URPP “Language and Space” at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Due to the relatively small participant group, we were able to work very productively through each of the three daily sessions. A great selection of invited scholars introduced us to their different angles and methodological approaches in dealing with virtual, social, and physical space. In the end, we wrapped it up into a large picture of relationships and differences between the discussed concepts. In order to give an overview of their current research every participant performed a pecha kucha at Tuesday and Thursday night. These sessions have been highlights of the week.
It seems very likely that this summer school served as a great kickoff for further collaborations and thought processes. Apart from enjoying the sun and the surroundings in Kappel am Albis, the event certainly inspired new insights into our data; reminding us that research is an amazing thing, being demanding and fun at the same time.

Thanks a lot to Prof. Dr. Andreas Jucker and his colleagues who made this event happen.

The International Colloquium on Communication (ICC) was founded in 1968 and takes place every other year. It’s general aim is to discuss new results of research on communication. CrossWorlds is glad on having been part of the 2016th edition, wich took place in Fulda last week. This year’s specific focus was ‘communication and tragedy‘. Our fellow Ingmar presented a paper titled “The escape button as the only way out – when human-computer-interaction breaks down” as a spotlight on his current research.

A specific feature of the ICC is it’s small size with only about 25 participants. This year, 20 scholars from the U.S. and Europe met in Fulda from July 24th to 29th. Due to that we had plenty of time for enlightening discussions from various angles.

The Research Training Group "Connecting Virtual and Real Social Worlds" addresses the increase in digitization and its resulting virtualization of processes, communication, environments, and finally of the human counterparts. The nature and the degree of virtualization vary significantly, and they depend considerably on the context of application. In addition, media-mediated communication is always restricted in comparison with real-world communication.
Our goal is to overcome the current constraints of media-mediated communication. In doing so, we will study which new ways of interaction and communication are offered by the connection of virtual and real social worlds in comparison with the experience of immediate real interaction and communication.
The research program subdivides the connection between virtual and real social environments into the fields of: communication, emotions, sensomotorics, and learning. Research in these areas is performed within interdisciplinary research networks consisting of computer scientists and social scientists on a doctoral, postdoctoral, and on the supervisory level.
The qualification program is based on the objective of the Research Training Group, which is explicitly focused on joint technology-oriented and social-scientific-oriented media research. Seminars and workshops, some of them to be organized by the fellows, are focused on the research topics of the fellows. Furthermore, tutorials repare the fellows for the challenges of the national and international scientific community. The qualification program is completed by visits of designated guest scholars.